Earlier, Twitchy told you about GOP Strategist Mike Murphy going after NRA Spokeswoman Dana Loesch.
The Washington Free Beacon’s Stephen Gutowski, a well-known gun writer in the firearms industry, wanted to set the record straight about the New York Times piece and the outlet’s perceived notion of Loesch.
The @nytimes profile of @DLoesch is better than I expected but it definitely paints her as somebody who is afraid all the time. That's not accurate. I doubt they'd come to that same conclusion if they knew her better or if they read my recent piece on her. https://t.co/azeL1nRkzi
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) January 24, 2018
The difference between pro-gun and anti-gun women is how we view ourselves. Pro-gun women realize that there are real threats out there, that there are people who want to cause us harm. We know that at any moment we can be the victim of sexual assault or domestic violence. It comes with the territory of being a woman. Instead of allowing ourselves to fall victim to a crime, we want to do everything in our power to make sure we aren’t wishing we stood up to defend ourselves.
Anti-gun women, on the other hand, are in denial about the world we live in. They live in a fairytale world where nothing goes wrong and, if it does, it can be solved by sitting down and talking things out.
But what do you do when you have a man three times your size attempting to pin you down and rape you? Do you beg and plead for your life? Or would you rather use a firearm to wield him off? At the end of the day, talking him down isn’t going to do anything. If it did, how many rape survivors never would have been the victim in the first place? Probably all (because you know they begged and pleaded for the guy to stop).
As with all the women I spoke to for my piece and who I've known for a good while, they're aware of and prepared for the very real and very graphic threats but it's impossible to say any of them allow those threats drive the way they live their lives.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) January 24, 2018
If you spend much time with any of the women featured in my piece you'll see that they're rather laid back and fun to be around. They aren't waiting around in terror all the time despite the very real and often severe harassment they face.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) January 24, 2018
Again, that’s how the media tries to paint us. They want us to be the image of fear. They want people to think that we sit in the corner and cry with our gun in our hand, waiting for some sort of threat to happen to us.
Anyway, that was the main thing that bothered me about the NYT piece. Felt very cliched. The idea that gun advocates live their lives scared of everything is a lazy and well-worn trope in news reporting that just doesn't reflect reality.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) January 24, 2018
It IS a cliche. We’re not afraid to walk out into the daylight and away from our families. We DO live a normal life, just like everyone else.
Here's the profile if you'd like to read it: https://t.co/4J4nWgHRVO
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) January 24, 2018
Stephen Gutowski is right about one thing: pro-gun women aren’t cowards. We aren’t afraid to voice our opinions. We aren’t afraid to stand up for our Second Amendment rights and we sure as hell aren’t going to allow someone to make us the victim of a crime..
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